1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates in general to a method of controlling cooking in a microwave oven or an electronic cooking appliance, and more particularly to a method of controlling cooking in a microwave oven wherein the cooking can be performed at the optimum condition by sensing a sonic level through a sonic sensor in the case where the cooking is made utilizing a pressure container which produces a sound upon exhausting vapor therefrom.
2. Description of Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a schematic diagram of a conventional microwave oven. As shown in this figure, the microwave oven comprises a turntable 3 disposed in a heating chamber 1 on the bottom thereof arranged to be rotatable about its own axis. An exhaust guide 7 is placed on the ceiling of the heating chamber 1 for exhausting vapor therethrough, gas or air generated in the heating chamber 1 to the outside of the microwave oven through driving of a fan by a fan motor 4. Provided in the exhaust guide 7 are a plurality of sensing devices 8, such as a humidity sensor, a temperature sensor and a gas sensor, for sensing a humidity, a temperature and amount of the exhaust gas in the heating chamber 1, respectively.
When the cooking is to be performed in the microwave oven with the above-mentioned construction, a container 2 containing a food therein is placed on the turntable 3 and is heated with rotation of the turntable 3. The exhaust gas or water vapor being generated from the food in the heating chamber I as the food is heated is exhausted through the exhaust guide 7 to the outside of the microwave oven. At this time, the plurality of sensing devices 8 provided in the exhaust guide 7 sense the humidity, the temperature and the amount of the exhaust gas in the heating chamber 1, respectively. In response to the sensed information, a controller (not shown) automatically controls the heating of the food and, therefore, the cooking thereof, according to the class of the food.
The conventional microwave oven has a disadvantage, in that it takes no notice of a characteristic of the container 2, particularly when the container 2 is a pressure container such as a pressure cooker. That is, in the case where the cooking of the food is to be performed utilizing the pressure container in the microwave oven, the cooking is controlled according to the information sensed by the plurality of sensors 8, similar to the case of utilizing a different container, without respect to the characteristic of the pressure container. Herein, although the microwave oven has been disclosed for illustrative purpose, those skilled in the art will appreciate that an electronic cooking appliance can control the cooking similar to that of the microwave oven. Noticeably, the "pressure container" is adapted to carry out the cooking of the food therein maintaining a desired pressure therein by vapor being generated when the food is heated and to produce a sound when the vapor is exhausted through an exhaust nozzle thereof when the internal pressure is above the desired pressure.
Since the pressure container such as the pressure cooker carries out the cooking of the food therein maintaining the internal pressure rising to the desired pressure, the cooking of the food therein can be performed by a smaller amount of heat as compared with a different container. For this reason, in the case where the cooking of the food is to be performed utilizing the pressure container in the microwave oven, the humidity, temperature and amount of the exhaust gas sensed in the exhaust guide 7 in the microwave oven are different from those of the case of cooking the same food utilizing a different container. In result, in the case where the cooking of the food is to be performed utilizing the pressure container in the microwave oven, the cooking of the food is not performed by heat an amount suitable to the pressure container, but performed by too much heat.